Hallmark Developments, which is building a new village in Halstead, Essex, is well aware of the demand for healthcare and the need to create properties that suit all situations.

Priory Hall is a collection of new-build properties surrounding a former school in which there are a number of apartments. Also on site is Colne View, a care home that is already up and running.

Miriam Reader, 67, has just bought an apartment at the village that will be ready to move into in the spring of 2014.

Her husband Malcolm, 80, suffers from dementia and she feels the development is the answer to her prayers.

She said: “We moved to Suffolk four years ago and Malcolm had a stroke three weeks later, which left him with dementia. He is all right physically at the moment but he is getting more poorly as time goes on.

“We live on the first floor of an old Grade II-listed manor house, so it is similar to the development at Priory Hall where we have bought one of the apartments converted from the 19th century school building. It is very similar to what we live in now, which is a Victorian Gothic manor with huge tall chimneys.”

Priory Hall is a collection properties with an up and running care home [PH]

There is a community of like-minded people here of the same age so we will be able to make new friends

Miriam Reader

In other respects, however, Mrs Reader says the new place will be very different and will give her a chance of a new life.

She said: “At present Malcolm goes to daycare locally where we live and he will be able to continue to do so at the day club at the care home at Priory Hall, where there are also the extra facilities of respite care and residential care for later, if needed.”

Extra medical help at Colne View is also available if needed. “We get a lot of extras with the apartment in that it is a secure development with CCTV cameras, so my husband will be able to go out into the landscaped garden and be safe. “There is also a communal area being built to the side called the orangery, which will have a library and kitchen.

“There is a community of like-minded people here of the same age so we will be able to make new friends.”

For Mrs Reader there are other attractions, such as the on-site hairdressers, a cinema and a bistro, which can all be used by residents.

Another facility that will be of benefit is a guest suite where friends and relatives can stay, so Mrs Reader will not have to worry about looking after them at her home.

Miriam Reader is moving to the newly built Priory Hall for her retirement [ALBANPIX.COM]

Another facility that will be of benefit is a guest suite where friends and relatives can stay, so Mrs Reader will not have to worry about looking after them at her home.

She says that after her husband became unwell, she had looked at care homes but had not found anything suitable.

“I found Priory Hall quite by chance when I was driving through Halstead and saw a sign for it. When I drove up, I thought this is what I have been dreaming of.”

Mrs Reader says there are plenty of lifestyle villages in Australia where her son lives but there are very few in her area of England.

She says that she “can’t wait” to move in when her apartment, for which she paid £245,000, is ready.

“The fact that it is a red-brick Victorian building similar to where we live now means the move should not be too much of a wrench for my husband. And hopefully Malcolm will be able to stay at home with me much longer.”

Two remaining cottages at Priory Hall cost £275,000. Apartments will be available next year.

Information:www.prioryhall.co.uk/ 01787 273737 Charters Village, East Grinstead, West Sussex, a former ballet school, has been turned into a small retirement village with a purpose-built 60-bed care home at its centre. An Edwardian manor house forms the centrepiece of the project, which will offer properties with prices ranging from £265,000 to £580,000.